New fuel tanks with fiberglass innards

[L'Avion]

My RV-3 fuel tanks were 28 years old and had begun to leak beyond what appeared to be fixable. Vans does not supply kits for RV-3 tanks and didn't have any ribs/baffles either, so it looked like building new plans from scratch was the only option, until I came up with the idea of no-leak fiberglass innards.

I'm posting a few pictures of the completed tanks here for starters and will scan some others of how they were assembled, to post later.

Weight resulted in exactly the same as the old tanks: 11.2 pounds each.

Barney

See Below:

[tin man]

Lots of questions but will wait for construction pictures.
Tom
RV3

[Mel]

You don't show any internal ribs or anti slosh baffles. It's hard to believe the weight is the same. Normally fiberglass is notably heavier than aluminum.

[robertahegy]

I was curious about the internal ribs and baffles, too. Also, will the new tanks have the brackets for bolting them to the spar, or didn't RV3 have those?

Roberta

[Mel]

Originally Posted by robertahegy

I was curious about the internal ribs and baffles, too. Also, will the new tanks have the brackets for bolting them to the spar, or didn't RV3 have those?

Roberta

Roberta, if you're talking about the "Z" brackets, none of the RVs prior to the -7, 8 & 9 had these.

[Norman CYYJ]

I hope this doesn't give Van's any ideas of going to fiberglass tanks. There is already to much darn fiberglass work on these plane. Nice looking tanks tho.

[leonc]

wow, i have so many questions. i thought wing tanks were standard with the 3 now. are they not. is this because you do not have the "b" wing. ok i guess that is only 2 questions. congrads on an inventive fix
leon

[L'Avion]

I have scanned these pix from 81/2x11 white paper prints, so no guarantee as to how they are going to show here, but here we go:

[L'Avion]

As Paul Harvey says, "Page two."

[grover]

beware gasohol. . . not sure if you use mogas, but many boat owners with fiberglass tanks had their engines ruined when E10 was introduced. the ethanol ate the fiberglass tanks and gummed up the engines. some fiberglass chemicals allege to be gasohol resistant.